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“No one wants the government to shut down,” U.S. Buy nike running shoes onlineHouse Speaker John Boehner said after meeting with President Obama late Wednesday.

But Priscilla’s famous line from “The Courtship of Miles Standish” seems an appropriate retort here: “Speak for yourself, John.” Because on the same day Boehner spoke, a number of tea party Republicans were marching outside the Capitol in Washington, wearing 1776 regalia and holding up signs defiantly urging, “Shut ’Er Down!”

The marchers, as it happened, included at least two from our neck of the woods: John Oltsevig, of Carthage, and Bob Mason, from Pinebluff. Interviewed on CNN about his “Shut ’Er Down!” placard, whose message seemed to allow little latitude for interpretation, Oltsevig backpedaled a bit and said he was “just making a point” and really didn’t want to see the federal lights go out.

However that may be, plenty of tea party advocates clearly do want the government to shut down. The reasons vary, no doubt. But the primary one, if the movement’s strident literature is to be believed, is that they simply don’t like government, are suspicious of it, and would like nothing more than to “shut ’er down” and go about their lives with little or no government interference in their lives. buy Reebok ZigTech

Even if Boehner and some of his fellow GOP congressional leaders truly do hope to find a reasonable, civilized way out of the ugly current budget impasse, they are paralyzed by fears of being outflanked by such extreme fringe attitudes out there on the right. Nor are the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Senate immune from their own political considerations as they, too, harden their positions.

In any case, if a shutdown does come at midnight tonight (assuming no compromise is achieved after this edition of The Pilot goes to press), it’s looking as if Moore Countians will feel blessedly few direct, immediate effects.

Post offices will remain open, and the self-funded U.S. Postal Service, which no longer gets direct federal money, will continue to deliver the mail — including Social Security checks, whose processing is largely automated. Of course, a lengthy shutdown would gradually begin to impact us all in countless other ways.

Of great importance to our neighborhood, next door to Fort Bragg, is that the military will continue to be paid for now — even without a Democratic embrace of a Republican twist that would shut down everyone else while providing the Pentagon with enough money to keep it going until the Sept. 30 end of the budget year.Buy nike cheap mens acg sandals black

What a sad and sorry state of affairs this whole spectacle is — a glorified game of chicken that does nothing to enhance anyone’s confidence in the ability of Americans to govern themselves effectively.